Network server card and method for handling requests received via a network interface

ABSTRACT

An information asset (e.g., audio/video data) server system and a set of steps performed by the data server system are disclosed that facilitate efficient handling of a potentially large workload arising from request messages received from users via a communicatively coupled network link. The network data server system comprises content transfer node including an external network interface and a set of event engines. A workload request received by the interface is delegated to one of the set of event engines. The delegated event engine executes the request (or a portion thereof) based upon the request type. In an embodiment of the invention further requests that are part of the same logically related group of communications are identified explicitly or implicitly by header fields and associated with a single set of context data and state tracking maintained by the content transfer node.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application is a continuation-in-part of Phillips et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/638,774 filed on Aug. 15, 2000, entitled “Network Server Card and Method for Handling Requests Via a Network Interface” that is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety including the contents of any references contained therein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention generally relates to the field of server systems for handling requests from multiple users in a network environment. More particularly, the present invention concerns apparatuses and methods for efficiently providing specialized services to requesters in a network environment through request distribution.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] As the Internet expands, so too are the potential number of users that simultaneously seek access to particular Internet resources (e.g., a particular Web site/address). Thus, operators of Internet sites are well advised to arrange their systems in a manner such that the current and future expanded versions of the system hardware relied upon to deliver site resources to users are capable of responding to a potentially high volume of user requests.

[0004] As the population of web users grows, the number of concurrent clients that a single web server must support similarly grows. It is now routine for a “single site” to have peak load access demands far exceeding the capacity of a single server. Users of such a site desire the illusion of accessing a single server that has consistent information about each user's past transactions. Furthermore, every distinct user should access the apparent single server using a same name. The challenge is to handle request processing load such that users are unaffected by any undesirable side-effects of handling high request volume and high data traffic volume associated with responding to the requests.

[0005] Web servers today are faced with increasing demand to provide audio/video materials, such as MP3, MPEG and Quicktime files. Such files are considerably larger than simple web pages. The combination of more users demanding larger files presents a potentially overwhelming demand for vastly increased data volume handling capabilities in web servers. More servers are needed to handle the increasing data retrieval and transmission workload.

[0006] Solutions have been implemented that share a common goal of dividing the workload of the single virtual server over many actual servers. It is desired that the workload of responding to multiple user requests be divided in a transparent manner so that the division is not visible to the customer. However, load-balancing mechanisms have limited or no knowledge with regard to the context or prior history of the messages they are trying to distribute. Existing solutions have chosen between overly restricting the requests that can be processed by particular servers, thereby limiting the ability to evenly balance the traffic load. In other instances work is divided between servers operating in ignorance of each other.

[0007] There are at least four known approaches for dealing with the aforementioned problems encountered as a result of high user load. The oldest is server mirroring that involves replicating content across multiple sites. Users are encouraged to select a specific server that is closest geographically to them. Because the load distribution is voluntary it is not very efficient. Synchronizing the content of all servers across all sites is problematic and time consuming. Generally this approach is considered suitable only for non-commercial information distribution.

[0008] Second, a distributed naming service (DNS) approach accepts requests from many clients and translates a single Domain Name in the requests to an Internet Protocol (IP) address. Rather than returning a same address to all clients, multiple servers are designated, with each client receiving an IP address of only a particular single server from the available servers. The IP addresses supplied within the DNS answers are balanced with the goal of evenly dividing the client load amongst the available servers. Such distributed processing methods are inexact due to remote caching. Furthermore, problems arise with regard to ensuring that related requests from the same client issued at different times result in a connection to the same server. Traffic to the DNS server is increased because DNS queries are increased. This second approach demonstrates that merely duplicating hardware will not meet a need for additional throughput in a server resource/system. Additionally, because later queries from the same user could easily go to a different server, all work must be recorded on shared storage devices. Such additional storage devices could be additional database or file servers, or devices on a storage area network.

[0009] Third, OSI layer 3 (network) and layer 4 (transport) switching solutions distribute connections across multiple servers having similar capabilities (though possibly differing load handling capacity). Entire sessions are distributed to a particular server regardless of the type of request. Because a layer 3 or 4 switch is not an actual participant in any of the protocol sessions going through it, and because it is of a simpler and more specialized design than the actual servers, it cannot fully understand the protocols that it implements. It cannot with full certainty understand the types of requests it sees. Though limited examination of packet contents may occur, the majority of such switches do not examine the content of packets that pass through them.

[0010] An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) file transfer is one example where limited examination may occur. Some layer 3 switches are configured with enough knowledge of the FTP protocol to recognize the description of a second connection buried within the payload of a packet transferred via a first connection. Others merely assume that all connections between a pair of IP addresses are for the same user. The former approach requires the switch to stay current with all new application protocols, and cannot work with encrypted payloads. The latter presents the problem of requiring all users working behind a single firewall using Port Network Address Translation (PNAT), or masquerading, to be considered as a single user. Given that the goal of load balancing is to evenly distribute the workload, unpredictability in how much work is being committed to a single server with a given dispatch presents a problem. This example illustrates the deficiencies in the prior known systems that are limited to switching functionality rather than delegating execution of requests for resources to specialized processors/processes.

[0011] Once a session is initiated it is assigned to a particular server based on very little context information. Typically the context information includes only the addressing information within the initial packet itself without the benefit of knowing the substance of any queries to customer databases or other records. In particular it is not practical for the switch to distinguish between a single user and an entire building of users sharing a single IP address. Thus, an initial assignment may be supplemented only by limited analysis of later packets to identify packets belonging to the same session. This distribution scheme is carried out by a switch having very limited analytical capabilities.

[0012] Other prior load distribution solutions conduct only limited analyses to determine the type of a request received by the server system after a session is initiated and assigned to a particular server. Furthermore, providing a set of equally capable servers is a potentially expensive solution that is likely considered too expensive for many potential Internet service providers. Sharing results through direct back channel communications or sharing of database, file or storage servers is still required for these solutions.

[0013] In a fourth known attempt to distribute requests for resources over distributed network servers, server clusters distribute work internally over an internal communications bus that is typically a switched access bus. Communications to the external network interface are performed via a single centralized server. Thus, while distributing the computational load, the fourth known option introduces a potential data communications bottleneck at the centralized communication server.

[0014] The first three solutions divide a single virtual server's workload into multiple user sessions. Such prior known solutions attempt to ensure that all traffic for a given user session is handled by a single actual server while attempting to distribute the work load evenly over the entire set of actual servers. These goals are incompatible in the prior known systems. Mirroring, because it relies upon the user identifying the targeted server, is excellent at ensuring only one actual server deals with a given user, but the only mechanism for balancing load between the servers is the process of users shifting between servers out of frustration. Layer 3 switch solutions achieve load balancing, but at the cost of failing to identify all parts of a single user's interaction with the server. The fourth solution avoids these problems by having a single server delegate work, but limits the scope of this optimization by remaining a single communications bottleneck.

[0015] Thus, while a number of solutions have been implemented to deal with the problem of explosive growth in the popularity and volume of use of the Internet and the resident Web sites, none provide a solution to the increased cost and overhead associated with distributing user workload addressed to a single apparent resource that is, in actuality, distributed across multiple processors.

[0016] It is further noted that today many Internet servers are deployed almost exclusively to distribute stored content. In other words, such servers execute one task-delivering data stored on a memory drive to a requesting client over the Internet. Such servers are structured on a request-load-process-deliver model. The server application on a server host machine accepts a request for content from a client. In response, the server application loads the requested content from a memory drive into process memory space reserved for the server application on the host. After loading the content into process memory space, the server application processes the content, and then the server delivers the processed content to the client.

[0017] Ideally, content providers would prefer utilizing as few server machines as possible to deliver content to Internet clients. However, in the case of streaming data (e.g., video, audio, etc.) the process of accepting a request, loading content and then delivering the content consumes nearly all of the processor's capacity serving only a single Gigabit Ethernet port. When multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports are provided for a single server application, the processor becomes a system bottleneck. As a result, streaming content servers often require multiple replicas to provide satisfactory bandwidth to client/users.

[0018] Many factors contribute to this bottleneck. Packets on both the internal network (where the stored content is accessed) and external network (where the clients are located) arrive interleaved, fragmented and even out-of-order. The received packets must be processed by the host operating system. In addition to the inherent work of de-fragmenting the incoming packets, processing the packets by the host operating system involves switching between user and system memory maps and quite likely copying data between the user memory space and system memory space. Furthermore, because of successive layering of protocols, it is common to apply a variety of checksum or CRC algorithms to different portions of the payload with different degrees of reliability. For example, when a higher layer protocol specifies an end-to-end 32-bit checksum, it cannot eliminate an inadequate 16-bit checksum specified by a lower level protocol. Hence both must be generated and checked. A number of system architectures attempt to address the processor bottleneck problem by optimizing the path between a network interface and a processing application. These include Virtual Interface Architecture (VIA), Infiniband Architecture (IBA), Warp and Microsoft's Winsock Direct.

[0019] The following comprises a discussion of the classical method for a server responding to client requests in an IP environment. In classic server design, IP datagrams arrive at multiple network interface cards (NICs). Each NIC deals with only one communication protocol. A typical server includes NICs for dealing with the external IP network (almost always Ethernet) and separate ones for dealing with an internal storage-oriented network. The internal storage-oriented network may be Ethernet/IP oriented, in which case it is possible to apply a NAS (network attached storage) strategy to access network file servers over the internal network. Alternatively the internal network may be a specialized Storage Area Network (SAN), such as Fibre Channel. The servers on these networks typically provide block-level services, rather than file-oriented services.

[0020] For an Ethernet/IP interface, the classic solution exhibits the following characteristics. Buffers for incoming traffic are allocated from a system memory pool on a per device basis, without regard to the eventual destination. After the Ethernet frame has been collected and validated, it is passed in FIFO order to the host operating system's protocol stacks. The host operating system's protocol stacks perform all required segmentation and re-assembly to deliver messages to the requesting application process. This must be based upon information within the reassembled packet. Typically this involves one or more copy operations to create an in-memory image of the complete buffer. Alternatively, more complex interfaces can be used to pass a “scatter/gather list” to the application. This results in more complex application code, or postponing coalescing the message fragments to the application code.

[0021] The work involved in transferring network payload through a Host Operating System protocol stack can be so time consuming, especially with switches between system and user memory space, that a single processor server can be almost totally consumed merely getting network traffic between a Gigabit Ethernet NIC and to applications. This leaves almost no processing resources for an application to actually accomplish any true data processing.

[0022] A virtual interface (VI) allows a NIC to directly post results to user memory. This allows a complete message to be assembled directly in the application's buffers without kernel/user mode switching or intermediate copying. VI interfaces support two delivery modes: send and remote direct memory access (RDMA). Send delivery mode is based upon a connection. The incoming data is paired with application read requests and transferred directly to the application memory. Successive reads consume requests, and reads are pre-issued. During RDMA delivery the request supplies a memory key validating its access to the target application memory space and an explicit offset within that target memory space. An RDMA interface allows a file server to utilize an out-of-order delivery strategy. Fragmented files are read from disk drives in the most convenient order. Being restricted to reading them in the “correct” order would require server-side buffering and/or more passes of the drive heads. Out-of-order delivery also enhances/supports striping of material across multiple drives. Without the need to synchronize multiple sources it is easier to get the multiple sources to deliver requested data in parallel.

[0023] VI and similar interfaces (such as InfiniBand) provide improvements over the classic via-kernel methods. However, they still exhibit significant drawbacks. First, VI and InfiniBand (IB) require buffers to be pre-allocated for each pending read. When applied only over the internal storage network this creates only relatively minor problems. However, when dealing with remote clients over the public external network long delays can be expected. Furthermore, pre-allocating distinct buffers for 10,000 active clients is wasteful when, for example, it can be predicted with near statistical certainty that no more than 500 of them will respond in the immediate future. The time between each client action and the time required to process each client request allows a single buffer to be re-used potentially many times. However, under VI and other similar RDMA protocols a buffer is locked down for a single client from before the time the request is issued until the request is fully satisfied. Second, under VI and IB the NIC obtains from a kernel agent the mapping data required to translate virtual memory addresses to physical memory for each client. Obtaining this information, and ensuring that it is “locked down” so that it cannot be moved or swapped out of memory, involves a time-consuming negotiation with the kernel agent. One VI-derived solution, the Infiniband Architecture, has added “Memory Windows” to provide logical slices of memory that are only kernel registered once but have finer-grained rights access administration on the NIC itself. Third, the requirements of VI cause significant portions of “application memory” to be pinned down and effectively function as system memory. Pinning down application memory forces other buffers to be swapped more often and makes it harder for the kernel to optimize application performance. This is especially true if the kernel has not been specifically re-engineered for VI. Fourth, while VI enables bypassing the host processor's operating system, the host processor is not bypassed. Therefore, all data traffic flows into the host processor's memory, is examined by an application, and then typically flows back out to another NIC connected to a network.

[0024] The two above-described prior data transmission approaches adopted by servers (i.e., classic and VI) are now described with reference to how an incoming Ethernet frame of data from, for example, an internal data storage network is handled by the server. In the classic server approach, the Ethernet frame is DMA transferred to a system buffer. Buffer selection is steered by the device type upon which the data is to be transmitted—not by the ultimate target. Intermediate software, typically the host operating system's protocol stacks, assembles messages and then copies them to user memory. This process is reversed to send the loaded payload as part of an HTTP response via an external network.

[0025] In the VI approach, when the Ethernet Frame arrives from a data storage network it is paired either with an application read request (in the case of a “send” operation) or an application memory space (in the case of an “RDMA” operation). Because the memory (and/or request) was pre-registered with the NIC and kernel, the NIC determines the destination address(es) in physical memory and deposits the payload there. This process is reversed to send the loaded payload as part of an HTTP response via the external network.

[0026] It is also interesting to note the number of memory transfer operations associated with processing an incoming Ethernet frame. In the classic server approach, the frame passes into the NIC, into the host processor system buffer, into the host processor user buffer, back to the host processor system buffer, back to a different NIC, and then out to a destination. In a VI type system, the frame passes into the NIC, into a host processor user buffer, back to a different NIC, and out to a destination. In both cases, buffering consumes considerable system resources.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0027] While the above-described server architectures will improve carrying out requests under the request-load-process-deliver model, such architectures seek to optimize getting stored content to a server application process and then transferring the data from the server application to the client via network communication interface processes. In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a server architecture facilitates optimizing transfer of requested content from data storage drives to requesting clients.

[0028] In accordance with the present invention, a data asset server handles content delivery traffic where there is no need to process the stored content, but rather merely a need to package the data and control its delivery to a designated location. Thus, the server carries out a “request-select-deliver” model wherein a request is received by the server from a client. Next, content to be delivered to the client in response to the request is selected. In an embodiment of the invention, notification, but not the selected data itself, is delivered to an application running on the server system that received the request. The content is delivered via an external network interface engine (with necessary protocol wrappers but no transformation of the actual content) to the requesting client.

[0029] In a particular embodiment of the invention, to which the invention is not limited, a content transfer engine receives an Ethernet Frame and a destination message buffer is determined either by a pre-existing read or based on the state of the connection. The destination is content transfer engine controlled memory. Notification, but not the data itself, is delivered to a content transfer daemon in the content transfer engine. The content transfer daemon controls transfer of content for a single end-user session. The content transfer daemon executes within the context of the content transfer engine itself. The content transfer daemon optionally extends its processing scope in conjunction with an extended content transfer daemon that runs on a conventional processor. Buffer capture events are typically sent to the content transfer daemon using event queues, but may be sent over the internal network directly to an extended content transfer daemon. Because dispatching notices should be prompt and highly reliable it would be highly unusual for an external network interface engine to be used. The content transfer daemon then, by way of example, composes an HTTP response referencing payload already in the content transfer engine's memory. The HTTP response, including the payload in the content transfer engine's memory is sent as the HTTP response via the external network.

[0030] With regard to memory operations, the received Ethernet frame is stored in the data buffer physically located on an access node. The Ethernet frame data is not moved into system buffer space managed by a conventional processor, nor is the frame processed by the conventional processor. Instead, the stored data is output to a connected network interface engine associated with an identified target destination without ever entering the conventional processor's data space.

[0031] In an embodiment of the present invention, multiple event engines execute in parallel or as co-routines upon the content transfer engine to serve client requests. Division of responsibilities between a CTE, resident CTDs, and conventional processor resident XCTDs is an application and implementation specific tradeoff. A conventional processor favored strategy would use the Content Transfer Engine to capture and transmit buffers, while making most protocol decisions on the conventional processor. A CTE favored strategy would handle virtually all normal cases itself, and only forward exceptional cases for conventional processor handling. The placement of wrapping protocol headers and trailers around the stored content is performed in any of a variety of possible locations, including both on and off the CTE. Finally, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is applicable to a variety of external network communications protocols.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] The appended claims set forth the features of the present invention with particularity. The invention, together with its objects and advantages, may be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

[0033]FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting an exemplary network environment into which the invention is advantageously incorporated;

[0034]FIG. 2 is a block diagram identifying primary logical components within a set of network nodes arranged in an exemplary physical arrangement in accordance with an information asset server system embodying the present invention;

[0035]FIG. 3 depicts a set of functional/logical components of a content transfer engine within a server system depicted in FIG. 2;

[0036]FIG. 4 depicts a set of data structures for external buffer control and facilitating execution of operations in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0037]FIG. 5 depicts a memory control block for a table data structure facilitating carrying out an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0038]FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary code routine memory control block facilitating carrying out the present invention;

[0039]FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary memory control block for an allocated buffer;

[0040]FIG. 8 depicts an exemplary memory control block for a free buffer;

[0041]FIG. 9 depicts a set of exemplary event queue target descriptors in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

[0042]FIG. 10 depicts an exemplary event queue entry format for queue entries placed within the event queues of a content transfer engine embodying the present invention;

[0043]FIG. 11 is a sequence of buffer representations depicting the state of a capture buffer as data arrives in an out of order fashion using RDMA mode capture;

[0044]FIG. 12 is a state diagram specifying how cells arriving on a node channel are collected into a packet;

[0045]FIG. 13 is a state diagram specifying how Ethernet frames are collected into a packet;

[0046]FIG. 14 is a state diagram specifying the life cycle of an event engine;

[0047]FIG. 15 is a state diagram that expands the “Dispatching Event” state of FIG. 14;

[0048]FIG. 16 is a state diagram that expands the “Completing Successfully” state from FIG. 14;

[0049]FIG. 17 is a state diagram that expands the “Completing With Exception” state from FIG. 14;

[0050]FIG. 18 is a state diagram specifying the life cycle of a Capture Buffer; and

[0051]FIG. 19 is a flow diagram depicting the general operation of the disclosed data server.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

[0052] A new network server architecture is described below in the form of a preferred embodiment and variations thereof. At the heart of this new network server architecture is a hybrid multiprocessor server. The hybrid multiprocessor server includes a data transmission engine comprising a set of micro-engines. The micro-engines are processors with limited capabilities for executing a particular set of tasks relating to, for example, data communication. The network server also includes at least one supplemental processor, a general purpose processor operating a standard operating system. The network is, by way of example, the Internet. Thus, communication between the server and an external network is preferably conducted in accordance with the Internet Protocol (IP).

[0053] When a user requests to initiate a session with the network server, a session request is received by a network interface engine. The network interface engine passes the request to either a micro-engine or the supplemental processor. After establishing a session/connection with a client, fulfillment of the client's data requests are carried out primarily by one or more of the micro-engines. The supplemental processor, in an embodiment of the invention, receives notification of a data transfer. However, data is transmitted between data storage drives (e.g., disk drives) managed by the network server and the requesting clients without transferring the transmitted data into the supplemental (host) processor's memory space.

[0054] As mentioned above, the network server of the present invention includes a set of one or more specialized micro-engine processors, including for example a set of micro-engines referred to herein as event engines that are configured to accept and execute content transfer requests. Each connection is tracked as a separate context. Each connection belongs to a specified class. The class specifies, for example, a state transition model to which all instances of that class will conform. The state model specifies the default buffer allocation behavior, and how event capture is to be processed (to what event queue and to what target routine) for each state. Instances deal with specific user sessions. An example of a specific class is one specifically configured to control delivery of an html file according to the HTTP delivery protocol using TCP/IP. Each instance actively transfers a specific html file to an end user/client via a specific TCP/IP connection.

[0055] An interface to an internal network provides communication paths between one or more storage servers (comprising multiple storage media devices such as hard drives) and the data transmission engine. In an exemplary implementation the internal network is an internal network of the type generally disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/579,574, filed on May 26, 2000, and entitled: “Information Distribution System and Method” which is explicitly incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. However the invention disclosed here is intended to be applied to other storage area networks, including Fibre Channel and Infiniband.

[0056] The architecture of a network server system including the above-described hybrid-multiprocessor data transmission interface is extensible, and thus multiple hybrid-multiprocessor network servers having the above general arrangement are integrated to provide access to a shared data resource connected via a switching fabric. Each of the network servers includes its own network interface engines. In the case of an Internet connection, each network server is assigned at least one unique Internet address. The invention is not limited to an Internet environment and may be incorporated into virtually any type of server environment including intranet, local area network, and hybrid combinations of various network interface engines to the network servers. Thus, while generally referred to herein as a network server, the architecture is applicable to network configurations that include both WAN and LAN interfaces.

[0057] The present invention is not intended to be limited to a particular arrangement of distributed handler processors on a Network server. The “server” may take any of many different forms. While preferably the default and specialized handler processors are arranged upon a single, multi-layer printed circuit board, the server is implemented in various embodiments as a set of cards connected via a high speed data/control bus.

[0058] In accordance with and exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an Internet Protocol (IP) access node, comprising a network server and associated stored content requested by clients on an IP network, includes a data access interface and a host. The host provides a conventional application program execution environment including off-the-shelf operating system software such as NetBSD, FreeBSD, Linux or Windows 2000. The data access interface comprises a combination of limited/specific purpose micro-engines that perform a limited set of operations associated with retrieving requested data from a set of data storage drives and delivering the requested data to clients. When a request for data is received by the IP access node, subsequently delivered data bypasses the host (e.g., supplemental) processor thereby avoiding a potential bottleneck to data delivery. While the invention is not limited to any particular protocol, in an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the data access interface is specifically programmed to handle high volume Worldwide Web and streaming media protocols such as the well known HTTP, FTP, RTSP and RTP data transfer protocols.

[0059] With regard to data transmission buffering in contrast to above-described known systems, the disclosed content transfer engines have the ability to defer the actual allocation of a capture buffer until the first packet arrives. The context has a current state. In that state, there are defined memory pools for the internal and external networks. When a packet actually arrives, the first free buffer in that memory pool is allocated. The system only needs to dedicate as many buffers to that pool as are statistically required to meet a desired safety margin to ensure that buffer overflow does not occur. Furthermore, because the pools are state sensitive, allocation rules are incorporated to ensure they cannot be exhausted by denial-of-service (DOS) attacks. A pool is configured to only provide on-demand buffers to established sessions. The pool specified for each state varies based on the peak demand for connections in that state, and the required data collection size. For example, during the life span of an inbound FTP session, there are times when a simple command is expected (requiring a relatively small buffer), and there are times when a large file transfer is expected (requiring large allocated buffer capacity).

[0060] Turning now to FIG. 1, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a content transfer engine is deployed in a server system environment including a set of content transfer access nodes 10 and 12. In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 access storage devices 14. The access storage devices are represented in FIG. 1 as a set of storage nodes accessed by the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 over an internal network 16 that preferably exhibits at least RDMA capabilities. The internal network 16 is preferably fully non-blocking switch fabric operating under an ATM protocol or a variation thereof, and data is packaged within cells transmitted over the internal network. However, such an internal network is not required to realize the advantages of the present invention.

[0061] In addition, the server system provides Internet content distribution services, e.g., HTTP, to an extensible set of clients 18 over an external network 20 such as the Internet. The interfaces between the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 and the external network 20 are, by way of example, Gigabit or 100 Mbit Ethernet ports. A particular embodiment of the invention includes dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. The exemplary server system includes one or more supplemental processor (SP) nodes 22, that reside on the host portion of the server system containing the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12. The supplemental processor nodes 22 handle portions of protocols and requests that cannot be handled by the limited state models supported by the content transfer engines within the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12. The SP nodes 22 are accessed directly, or alternatively (as shown in FIG. 1) via the internal network 16. The non-blocking paths of the internal network 16 are governed by a server controller 24. A number of internal networks are contemplated in accordance with various embodiments of the present invention. Examples of such internal networks include a “DirectPath” architecture of Ikadega, Inc., of Northbrook, Ill., disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/579,574, filed on May 26, 2000, and entitled: “Information Distribution System and Method”; and Phillips et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/638,774 filed on Aug. 15, 2000, entitled “Network Server Card and Method for Handling Requests Via a Network Interface” the contents of which are explicitly incorporated herein by reference. Content transfer engines executed within the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 perform/execute the role of an access node fabric interface in the server system.

[0062] Other suitable internal network types include Infiniband Architecture (IBA) wherein the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 serve the roles of a hardware channel adapter (HCA); and Fibre Channel wherein the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 are host adapters.

[0063] Having generally described an exemplary network environment, an embodiment of the invention and exemplary alternatives, attention is now directed to FIG. 2 that contains a schematic block diagram depicting components of a server system including the content transfer access node 10 in a network server system embodying the present invention as well as logical connections between the identified components. The architecture of the content transfer access node 10 is particularly well-suited for providing Internet oriented services, especially those involving streaming video or other real-time extended data delivery systems. The content transfer access node 10 features multiple execution units (engines/micro-engines). There is an execution unit associated with each network interface (interface engines) and multiple execution units to process protocol events (event engines). Each execution unit is fed by a corresponding dedicated queue. Such queues are described herein below. Execution units handle requests from their corresponding queue on a FIFO basis. Because of the limited processing capabilities of the set of micro-engines, the content transfer access node 10 is preferably utilized to control high-speed data transfers rather than to process (e.g., performing calculations upon) the transferred data itself. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the event engines only examine very small portions of the transferred data—typically only protocol headers.

[0064] The architecture of the content transfer access node 10 facilitates dividing tasks associated with processing client requests between the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 and the SP nodes 22. The content transfer access node 10 is implemented, by way of example, as a combination of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), and/or application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that perform a limited set of task types at a relatively high speed and with minimal overhead. The SP nodes 22, on the other hand, comprise conventional processors executing application programs on an off-the-shelf operating system. The SP nodes 22 execute tasks that are outside the limited scope of tasks executable by a content transfer engine 50. The SP nodes 22 execute the tasks delegated by, for example, the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 with the full overhead associated with processing requests in an off-the-shelf operating system environment.

[0065] The exemplary content transfer access node 10 includes the content transfer engine (CTE) 50 for communicating data between the external network 20 and the internal network 16. The CTE 50 includes an external network interface engine 54. The external network interface engine 54 passes request notifications to one of a set of event engines 58 via an event queue 60. The event engines 58 execute content transfer daemons 59 (CTDs) that execute, by way of example, a single instance of a specific protocol. Each instance maintains data to facilitate tracking the state of the protocol interchange and generating responses after being invoked with new packets received for the particular protocol interchange. Each content transfer daemon belongs to a class that specifies the behavior/code common to all instances executing the same protocol. An external interface event queue 56 temporarily stores request notifications for transmitting content over the external network 20 received from one of the set of event engines 58. The request notifications in the external interface event queue 56 concern transmissions from the server system to the external network 20. Similarly, the event engines 58 communicate to the internal network 16 via notifications placed within an internal network interface engine queue 62. Request notifications are passed from the event engines 58 to the internal network interface engine queue 62. Thereafter, the requests are propagated via an internal network interface engine 64 to the internal network 16. The operation of the internal network interface engine 64 is described herein below with reference to FIG. 3.

[0066] In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, an external RAM 70, is physically located upon the content transfer access node 10 (located, for example on a network interface card). The external RAM 70 operates as a buffer between external nodes and nodes connected to the internal network 16. During data transfers from a node on the internal network 16 to one of the external clients 18, data is placed within an external buffer within the external RAM 70 rather than an application buffer space located in one of the supplemental processor nodes 22. Thus, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, transferred data bypasses application space during the data transfers. Access to the external RAM 70 is controlled by a buffer control 72 and memory controller 74 that maintain a context for data transfer operations executed by the CTE 50. An exemplary context arrangement is depicted, by way of example, in FIG. 4.

[0067] The CTE 50 includes multiple event engines that process notifications of buffer captures within the CTE 50 itself. There are many possible implementations for the event engines 58. The capabilities of the event engines 58 include: having access to their own high-speed memory (referred to herein as “Internal Memory”), accepting work via the event queue 60 on the CTE 50, allocating and de-allocating buffers using a buffer control 72 of the CTE 50, performing DMA transfers to/from those buffers, posting events to interface engines (e.g., interface engines 54 and 64), and posting events to other event engines. Multiple event engines 58 are implemented as co-routines on shared hardware and/or through true parallel processing. If implemented as co-routines, event engines which are not engaging in DMA transfers to/from external memory may not be blocked because another engine is performing a DMA transfer. The life cycle of one of the event engines 58 is summarized herein below with reference to FIG. 14.

[0068] Buffer Control 72

[0069] The assigned usage of internal (on-chip) and external memory within the CTE 50 differs from the usage in a conventional processor. The conventional solution is for on-chip resources to be utilized for dynamic caching of content from the external memory. Generally the conventional processor is unaware of the operation of the cache, and operates as though it were truly working from the external ram. The CTE 50, by contrast, considers its internal memory to be its primary random access memory resource. The external memory is viewed as a random access device. Asynchronous memory transfers are executed to load the internal memory from the external memory, or to store back to the external memory. Additionally, DMA input and output is executed to/from external memory.

[0070] The CTE 50 also manages buffer allocation, event queuing and context switching.

[0071] The buffer control 72 manages allocation and de-allocation of memory within the external RAM 70 corresponding to event buffers. The buffer control 72 allocates a capture buffer for capturing input for a specified context. Each context represents a distinct content transfer and an associated content transfer daemon instance. On the internal network 16 contexts are explicitly identified in the first portion of a packet. In an embodiment of the invention the context is specified within the header of the first cell.

[0072] Furthermore, for data transmitted over the external network 20, application of a hash algorithm to the header fields of a packet is performed to identify a context. For a TCP/IP connection the context is identified by the combination of a VLAN (Virtual LAN) field with the source and destination IP address and source and destination TCP Port.

[0073] The allocation of a capture buffer within the CTE 50 follows any of a variety of scenarios including, by way of example, the following: a buffer may have been pre-loaded for the context by a content transfer daemon or extended content transfer daemon, the current state of the context specifies that a buffer should be allocated from a specified memory pool (described herein below), or the buffer may already be allocated as a result of collecting packets for the same connection that are part of a larger message. This set of options is in distinct contrast to prior solutions, which would only have pre-loaded read descriptors or the option of allocating buffer space from a common context-insensitive buffer pool.

[0074] One way to control allocation of buffer space is to pre-allocate memory pools that are used for particular request types or requesting entities. Allocation of a buffer from a specified memory pool is accomplished by simply removing a buffer control block from the head of a list of free buffer control blocks. Each memory pool has its own distinct free list. Allocating like-sized buffers from a linked list is a well-known practice in embedded software, although more typically employed within the context of a conventional processor.

[0075] Upon allocating a buffer control block, its associated use count is incremented. As will be described later herein, there are other actions that can “attach” or make claims on this buffer control block. The number of claims eventually reaches zero. When the number of claims reaches zero the buffer control block is returned to the buffer control 72's free pool. For a default memory pool, returning the allocated buffer to the free pool is accomplished by placing the buffer control block at the end of the free pool linked list of free memory blocks.

[0076] The buffer control 72, by way of example, is invoked during routine execution to allocate a new derived or “smart” output buffer. Smart buffers do not contain the actual output, but rather describe the output desired by reference to other buffers. Each of the buffer references is one “attachment” to the referenced smart buffer. For each segment of a “smart” output buffer, the sender may request that the payload for that section be applied to the calculation of a specific CRC or checksum. Other segments may request that the accumulated CRC or checksum be placed as output and then the current value reset. In this manner CRCs dependent on the payload content can be calculated without requiring either one of the event engines 58 or supplemental processor nodes 22 to examine the payload. However, the event engines 58 and/or supplemental processor nodes 22 retain full control over what payload contributes to the calculation of a particular CRC. Without this feature the network interface engines 54 and 64 would have to understand the CRC algorithms for every protocol the CTE 50 supports. This would be particularly difficult because it is common for the same payload to contribute to multiple CRCs at different OSI layers.

[0077] The buffer control 72 is also responsible for allocating and releasing any general free-standing data buffers. Free-standing buffers are used by content transfer daemons 59 to pre-stock boilerplate portions of responses. These may be included by reference in later responses. In this fashion common message elements, such as server identification strings and error codes do not have to be generated for each message that require them.

[0078] Supplemental Processor Node 22 a

[0079] A supplemental processor (SP) node 22 a, also referred to as a “host,” is capable of performing a wide variety of tasks delegated to it by the content transfer access node 10. SP node 22 a comprises, by way of example, its own dedicated external RAM 78. The exemplary SP node 22 a also includes a conventional processor 80 executing an off-the-shelf operating system 82 (e.g., WINDOWS, UNIX, LINUX, etc.). The supplemental processor 80 also executes one or more application programs 84 within the operating environment of the off-the-shelf OS 82. The SP node 22 a also includes the following program components: extended content transfer daemons (XCTDs) 86, a content transfer engine extension (CTEX) 88, and an internal network (fabric) interface 90. Other included components of the SP node 22 a include a FLASH memory device enabling bootstrapping the conventional processor 80. The SP node 22 a may additionally have its own external interfaces for administrative purposes. Such external interfaces include, by way of example, Ethernet and serial interfaces.

[0080] With regard to the programs executed upon the SP node 22 a, the operating system 82 includes a kernel and drivers. A set of socket daemons execute the operating system 82 and act as Internet daemons by accepting connections through a BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) socket application program interface. The BSD sockets API is the predominant interface used for applications running on Unix or Unix-derived operating systems that wish to interact via the Internet Protocols. The socket daemons are launched at system start-up or on-demand via a gate-keeping daemon such as INETD (under most Unix systems) which manages the process of launching daemons in response to external connection requests An example of a socket daemon is an APACHE web server. The SP node 22 a executes the CTEX 88 as a background process/task. The only special kernel support required is permission to interface directly to the internal network interface. The SP node 22 a's internal network interface engine 90 performs the same function as the CTE's internal network interface engine 64, but it may have differing performance requirements/capabilities for dealing with concurrent packet reception. The CTEX 88 bridges events/packets between the content transfer access node 10 and the XCTDs 86.

[0081] Socket daemons are a specific form of applications 84 (as shown in FIG. 2). The methods and conventions related to writing this sort of application are well known to those skilled in the art. Indeed, a major goal of the invention is to preserve the ability to execute the vast repository of existing applications code under this paradigm while enabling the actual data transfers to proceed in a more efficient manner.

[0082] In an embodiment of the invention the CTEX 88 operates closely with the SP node 22 a's internal network interface engine 90 and access is not filtered on a per-message basis by the SP node 22 a operating system 82. Such access is provided, for example, by memory mapped locations and FIFO structures maintained directly by the CTEX 88 with the permission of the operating system 82. The socket daemon applications of the applications 84 may communicate with the CTEX 88 either via the host operating system 82 kernel or via a kernel bypass interface (represented by line 91) that avoids calls to the operating system. Examples of such bypass interfaces would include the DAFS (Direct Access File System) API and VIPL (Virtual Interface Programming Library).

[0083] The XCTDs 86 comprise object oriented Internet daemons operating within the context of the CTEX 88 using an event dispatch-process model. The CTEX 88 invokes XCTDs 86 with an event, and accepts results to be effected upon successful completion. The results include messages to be sent, updates to shared data regions and creation/deletion of contexts. Thus, the relationship between XCTDs 86 and the CTEX 88 is similar to the relationship that exists between the CTE 50's event engines 58 and their content transfer daemons (CTDs) 59. However, the XCTDs 86 have access to the SP node 22 a's memory and are capable of more complex computations. The XCTDs 86 are capable of handling protocols without assistance, or alternatively act as pre- and post-filters to conventional socket-oriented application daemons.

[0084] In summary with regard to the role of the SP node 22 a in the proposed streaming data server application environment, the content transfer access node 10 relieves the SP node 22 a of the task of executing the actual transfer of requested content. The shift from “processing” the stored content to “selecting” and “wrapping” the content, changes the role of the SP node 22 a. The SP node 22 a is not even required for handling simple requests for data. Within the context of a server system including the content transfer access node 10, a “host processor” node containing a conventional processor is more correctly referred-to as a “supplemental processor” due to its supporting role in content transfer operations. The SP node 22 a is still able to control all protocol handling and participate in handling portions of protocols that are not handled by the content transfer access node 10. To accomplish these objectives, the SP node 22 a receives notifications that input has arrived. Under the content transfer approach, the SP node 22 a is notified that the content is loaded within the content transfer access node 10's memory. The SP node 22 a does not directly examine or process the transferred content. The SP node 22 a is capable of reading the content transfer access node 10's memory when it actually must see the content. Finally, the SP node 22 a is capable of creating buffers in the content transfer access node 10's memory.

[0085] A data storage node 14 a is communicatively coupled to the internal network 16 via an internal network interface 92. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the data storage node 14 a comprises a set of ATA Drives 94 a and 94 b coupled to the internal network interface 92 via storage adaptors 96 a and 96 b. An example of the structure and operation of the storage adaptors 96 a and 96 b is provided in Phillips et al. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/638,774 filed on Aug. 15, 2000, entitled “Network Server Card and Method for Handling Requests Via a Network Interface” incorporated herein by reference in its entirety including all references incorporated therein.

[0086] As mentioned previously herein above, the internal network 16 is preferably a non-blocking switch fabric. The data paths of the switch fabric are controlled by the server controller 24. The server controller 24 includes an internal network interface 98. The internal network interface 98 is, by way of example, a switch fabric interface for communicating with the other server components via the internal network 16. The server controller 24 includes, in a particular embodiment, an event engine 100 driven by notifications presented upon an event queue (not shown). The server controller 24, includes its own allocated external RAM 102. The server controller 24 maintains a list of files and volumes in file system 104 and volume system 106 to facilitate access to requested content on the data storage node 14 a. The server controller 24 also includes a storage array control 108 responsible for issuing instructions to the data storage nodes so as to fulfill the requests of other nodes and higher level components. The server controller 24 also includes a traffic shaping algorithm and controller 110 that establishes and maintains control over distribution of tasks to multiple available processing engines within the server system depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2. In the exemplary embodiment the storage array control and traffic shaping responsibilities are implemented by an algorithm that schedules their work jointly in a single software subsystem.

[0087] One of the primary tasks of a data server system embodying the present invention, and one for which it is especially well-suited, is delivery of content in the form of streaming data. In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention depicted in FIG. 1, the internal network 16 interfaces content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 directly to a set of data storage nodes 14 (e.g., a set of hard disk drives supplying streaming media content to a set of requesting clients). The content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 include interfaces to the external network 20. The intention of this architecture, and alternative network data access architectures embodying the present invention, is to provide a data path between a data storage device and an external network interface for transmitting data retrieved from the data storage device to requesting clients, and that bypasses a general processor (e.g., the supplemental processor nodes 22). In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, once a data stream commences in response to a networked client's request, the stream of requested data bypasses conventional processors and operating systems (in the supplemental processor nodes 22) that add delay-inducing, resource-consuming overhead to such transmissions.

[0088] In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention incorporating the general logical arrangement of components of FIGS. 1 and/or 2, the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 receive requests for content stored upon the set of data storage nodes 14. In response to the requests, possibly after initial setup procedures implemented by the supplemental processor nodes 22, retrieved content/data passes through the internal network 16 to the content transfer access nodes 10 and/or 12 that operate without the overhead of conventional processors running conventional, off-the-shelf operating systems. The retrieved content/data is handled by one or more of the micro-engines operating within the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12.

[0089] Handling is distinguished from “processing” the retrieved data. Handling, in an illustrative embodiment, includes basic packaging (or wrapping) of the retrieved data with, for example, a header, and transmitting the data according to rules specified by communications protocols. In other instances, the data is packaged by other entities such as the data storage-to-internal network interfaces. During handling the content of the retrieved data is not examined. On the other hand during processing, an application executes to substantively examine and/or modify the retrieved data. Processing is generally executed by an application executing upon an off-the-shelf operating system.

[0090] After performing any specified handling, the packaged retrieved data is transmitted over the external network 20 to one of the connected clients 18. Similarly, the content transfer access nodes 10 and 12 facilitate storing data received via external network 20 onto the data storage nodes 14 without passing the data through a conventional processor/operating system incorporated into the supplemental processor nodes 22.

[0091] The above-described processing differs from that of conventional processors in several ways. First, the content transfer engine 50 has no general purpose caches. Instead the internal memory is used as the primary working area, and the external RAM is viewed as a storage device. Typically processors view the external RAM as the primary working area, and on-chip memory is used to dynamically cache portions of the working area in a manner that is transparent to the software. Given that conventional processors need to support a wide range of application architectures this generalized approach is clearly superior. But the content transfer engine supports a highly specialized processing pattern, and applications can be designed to simply work from the equivalent of the internal cache directly, with the software taking explicit responsibility for transferring to from the external RAM. Second, the context switching required by the CTE 50 to support this type of transfer is extremely minimal compared to those under a conventional processor. Switching execution units only occurs between interpretive instructions (cooperative multi-tasking as opposed to pre-emptive) and switching between connection contexts only occurs at event dispatch. In conventional processor terms, switching to a connection context is just an application directed load and flush of a data cache. Loading and flushing data caches occurs constantly in conventional processor architectures.

[0092] Additionally, conventional processor architectures must save and restore registers, switch stack frames and possibly shift memory maps. Third, the CTE 50 has no need for memory mapping support. Conventional processors, and the entire VI family of protocols, go through many steps to ensure that user-mode applications can use the buffers they want to, at the memory addresses they desire. The CTE 50 provides buffers to content transfer daemons (CTDs). The CTDs do not attempt to control their own memory allocation, and hence do not really care where their data is stored, or how the buffers they are handling are addressed. The aforementioned content request handling is carried out, for example, by the content transfer access node 10 including the content transfer engine (CTE) 50 having a general arrangement depicted in FIG. 3. In addition to identifying a set of functional components within the CTE 50, FIG. 3 depicts a set of logical paths linking the identified functional components of the CTE 50 to one another. Links are also depicted between the CTE 50 and the external RAM 70, the external network 20 and the internal network 16.

[0093] The CTE 50 includes a physical interface linking to the internal network 16. In particular, a bi-directional data path 120 links the internal network interface engine 64 to the internal network 16. In an embodiment of the invention, the internal network interface engine 64 supports cell-based data transmissions over the bi-directional data path 120. However, in alternative embodiments, the data transmitted over the data path 120 is arranged in other formats in accordance with a variety of supported data transmission protocols.

[0094] In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, data is transferred between the external RAM 70 and the internal network interface engine 64—thereby bypassing costly conventional processor overhead. A bi-directional data path 122 between the internal network interface engine 64 and external RAM interface/buffer control 124 (corresponding to the buffer control 72 and memory controller 74 in FIG. 2) facilitates content data transfers between the internal network interface engine 64 and the external RAM 70. A bi-directional address/data bus 126 links the external RAM interface/buffer control 124 to the external RAM 70. The bi-directional data path 122 and bi-directional address/data bus 126 facilitate transmitting content data directly between the internal network interface engine 64 and external RAM 70.

[0095] Data transfers to the internal network 16 from the external RAM 70 are executed according to commands generated by the event engines 58. Upon generation by the event engines 58, the commands are placed within the internal network interface engine queue 62. Transfer of generated commands from the event engines 58 to the internal network interface engine queue 62 are represented by line 130. The queued commands are read by the internal network interface engine 64 (represented by line 132). The internal network interface engine 64 executes read and write operations involving the external RAM 70 and internal nodes connected via the internal network 16 (e.g., storage nodes 14 and/or the supplemental processor nodes 22).

[0096] The internal network interface engine 64 is also capable of generating events (e.g., commands or messages) that drive the operation of the event engines 58. The internal network interface engine 64 submits events (described herein below) to the event queue 60 as represented by line 134. The queued events are read and executed by appropriate ones of the event engines 58 (represented by line 136). A bi-directional data path 138 between the event engines 58 and the external RAM interface/buffer control 124 facilitates submission of read and write requests by the event engines 58 to the external RAM interface/buffer controller 124. Such requests concern transfer of data between the external RAM 70 and the internal network interface engine 64 and/or the external network interface engine 54. When capturing buffers for storing incoming data this interface is used to locate a target memory location in the external RAM 72 to store the received data, and then to store it. The posted event merely refers to the buffer collected.

[0097] The output command posted to the external network interface engine queue 56 will typically contain references to this data. Thus content transfer is controlled by the CTD, without requiring examination or processing of the actual packet contents.

[0098] Internal Network Interface Engine

[0099] Converting Between Packets and Cells

[0100] One of the functions performed by the CTE 50 is converting data between a packetized form (for transmission over the external network) and a cell form (for transmission over the internal network). As previously mentioned, in the illustrative embodiment of the present invention, data is transmitted in the form of data cells over the internal network 16. In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention the cell/packet and packet/cell conversions are executed within the internal network interface engine 64. Such conversion functionality is embedded into other components of the CTE 50 (e.g., the external network interface engine 54) in alternative embodiments of the invention.

[0101] In it's outbound role (sending data over the internal network 16), the internal network interface engine 64 receives event buffers from the internal network interface engine queue 62. In response, the internal network interface engine 64 fetches a buffered packet from the external RAM 70 (via the buffer control 124) based upon a location pointed to by the contents of an event retrieved from the queue 62. The internal network interface engine 64 generates a set of cells from the retrieved buffered packet, and transmits the cells to the internal network 16 via lines 120. Generating the cells includes generating and appending a CRC-32 for the data within the buffered packet. At the end of transmitting a series of cells corresponding to the buffered packet to the internal network 16, a buffering outbound depacketizer within the internal network interface engine 64 releases the event buffer back to the buffer control 124.

[0102] An output request is made by posting an event that references a “smart buffer” to the external network interface engine queue 56. As previously described for the external interface, the internal interface transmits each portion of the described output to a buffer set aside in the external RAM 70. After each segment is transmitted, the claim on that portion of the smart buffer set aside in RAM 70 is released. Finally the claim on the smart buffer itself is released when the requested data has been transmitted entirely. With regard to data transmission to the internal network, the internal network interface engine 64 translates each segment into a series of internal network cells.

[0103] In the exemplary embodiment of the invention, the internal network interface engine 64 receives a sequence of one or more cells from the internal network 16 in accordance with known data cell delivery specifications and data communications techniques—or variations of such standards. The internal network interface engine 64 converts the received cells into packets. The internal network interface engine 64 supports concurrent construction of one packet per assigned reception channel. Each received cell corresponds to a unique reception channel that distinguishes a received cell for a particular packet from other cells received by the CTE 50 that are associated with other incomplete packets being constructed within the CTE 50. In view of the need to distinguish packets under construction, the internal network interface engine 64 reassembles a maximum of one packet per reception channel at any given instance in time. To maintain such support, the buffering inbound packetizer of the internal network interface engine 64 stores a packet reception state for each designated reception channel (e.g., expecting packet start/middle packet, accumulated packet length, accumulated CRC-32 value, etc.). The buffering inbound packetizer latches a context buffer in internal RAM associated with each reception channel based upon a start cell for each packet to be constructed. The internal network interface engine 64 also invokes the external RAM interface/buffer control 124 to establish a data buffer within the external RAM 70 to the extent needed to handle an incoming packet. The options for allocating the buffer are as previously described for the external network interface engine.

[0104] Thereafter, the data payload in the corresponding received cells is stored within the established data buffer. When a packet is complete, the internal network interface engine 64 creates an event message. The packet completion event message is placed within a designated one of the event queues 60 associated with a particular event engine of the set of event engines 58 that will handle the completed packet.

[0105] Regardless of the manner in which a packet is accumulated, once it is complete, the constructed packet's CRC is validated. If the constructed packet's CRC is good, the payload is delivered to a dedicated destination. Otherwise CRC failure is tallied for statistical tracking, and the packet is dropped. For buffered inbound packetizing, when a packet is invalid (e.g., a failed CRC-32 check), the buffering inbound packetizer of the internal network interface engine 64 releases the current buffer associated with the incoming data packet.

[0106] External Network Interface Engine

[0107] Having described the portions of the CTE 50 most closely associated with data transfers over the internal network 16, attention is now directed to portions of the CTE 50 components that facilitate data transfers between the external RAM 70 and the external network 20. Such transfers are performed, for example, by the CTE 50 to provide retrieved data from one of the data storage nodes 14 to a requesting client via the external network 20. The external network interface engine 54 receives and transmits packets to/from the external network. In an exemplary embodiment the external network interface engine 54 manages a device bus and the network interface engine devices on the device bus. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, data is transferred between the external RAM 70 and the external network interface engine 54. A bi-directional data path 142 between the external network interface engine 54 and external RAM interface/buffer control 124 facilitates content data transfers between the internal network interface engine 64 and the external RAM 70. The bi-directional data path 142 and bi-directional address/data bus 126 facilitate transmitting content data directly between the external network interface engine 64 of the CTE 50 and external RAM 70.

[0108] To capture packets, the external network interface engine 54 responds to a packet ready condition (typically in the form of a status line and/or interrupt from an actual network interface engine device) by transferring just the packet header from the actual interface. This is illustrated in FIG. 13 as the “headerReceived” transition from the “idle” state.

[0109] Fields of the header are used to find the hash entry for this connection. If none exists a new context is allocated and placed in the hash table. Fresh context allocations come from a reserved pool of “unknown connection” contexts. This limits the total resources that can be tied down responding to new external network connection requests.

[0110] Such limits represent yet another manner in which the system defends against Denial-of-service attacks. If the context resource pool is exhausted, then the incoming frame is discarded. A diagnostic tally of all such discards is kept. After assigning a context, the header is examined to determine the capture type (serial or RDMA) and the total packet size.

[0111] Having determined the capture type and packet size, the context is latched for the identified capture type. As detailed herein, latching the capture buffer for a context finds or allocates a buffer to capture the incoming data. Once a capture buffer is allocated, the fetched header is stored in that buffer. Then a DMA transfer from the external network device to the capture buffer is requested.

[0112] The DMA transfer either completes successfully (as shown by the “goodTransferNotice” transition in FIG. 13) or an error is detected, such as an invalid CRC (as shown by the “badTransferNotice”). If the DMA transfer is successful the captured bytes are committed. At this point the immediate collection is complete, and the context is unlatched. In an external protocol dependent fashion the interface engine determines whether use of the current buffer has ended. If use of the current buffer is done, then the buffer is released. Otherwise the engine returns to an “idle” state. The one condition where a buffer is always “done” is when it has been completely filled. On a bad transfer notice the context is unlatched and the buffer is aborted.

[0113] External Network Output Requests

[0114] Data transfers between the external network 20 and the external RAM 70 are executed according to commands generated by the event engines 58. Upon generation by the event engines 58, the commands are placed within the external network interface engine queue 56. Transfer of generated commands from the event engines 58 to the external network interface engine queue 56 are represented by line 144. The queued commands are read by the external network interface engine 54 (represented by line 146). The external network interface engine 54 executes read and write operations involving the external RAM 70 and external nodes connected via the external network 20 (e.g., clients 18).

[0115] The external network interface engine 54 is also capable of generating events (e.g., commands or messages) that drive the operation of the event engines 58. The external network interface engine 54 submits events (described herein below) to the event queue 60 as represented by line 148. The queued events are read and executed by appropriate ones of the event engines 58 (represented by line 136).

[0116] Context Mutual Exclusion by Serialization

[0117] One requirement of object-oriented network processing is that the system must ensure that the events for any given object must be processed serially. The processing of event N for object/connection X must be completed before the processing for event N+1 for object/connection X starts. Conventional approaches to solving this problem include assigning each object to a single processing thread, and use of semaphores or locks to ensure that if two threads do try to update the same context, that the second one will be forced to wait for the first's completion. These conventional solutions consume system resources and can result in delays in handling events. Static assignment of threads is low overhead, but can result in some threads being idle while others are backed up in processing their input queue.

[0118] The CTE 50 solves this problem by dynamically assigning a context/object to a specific execution unit when it makes a dispatch. If there are no currently dispatched events for that context, one of the event engines is picked arbitrarily. To ensure that this selection is statistically balanced, and that it can be done without requiring references to tables stored in external memory, the preferred implementation is to make the selection based upon a hash of a dispatched routine handle. However there are a wide range of algorithms to make a balanced selection with low overhead.

[0119] When a dispatch is made the CTE increments a count of dispatched events for that context, and records a selected event engine of the event engines 58. As long as that count remains non-zero, all future dispatches for this context/object will be placed on the same queue. At the completion of dispatching each event, the selected event engine will decrement the dispatch count for the context/object. When the count returns to zero, the choice of event queue is once again unlatched and can be dynamically assigned to a later event associated with the context/object.

[0120] Queues

[0121] In an exemplary embodiment, queues are a fundamental element for interfacing the execution units (engines) and the CTDs 59 and device control routines that they run. Each of the queues depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3 feeds a single execution unit. When a calling component seeks to send a message to another component of the CTE 50, the calling component posts a message to the target queue. Posting may be a result of buffer capture or may be the result of a successful event dispatch by an event engine. The receiving component is responsible for fetching the received messages from its queue.

[0122] Furthermore, events need not always be posted immediately to a particular queue when they arise. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, a ticker within the internal network interface engine 64 posts events received from a time deferred request queue (not shown in the figures). The ticker accepts event messages and buffers them for a designated time period. The ticker reposts the event message to an appropriate one of the event queues 60 after a designated wait period specified in the received event message.

[0123] In an embodiment of the invention, message queues are implemented entirely upon a chip containing the processing components of the CTE 50 (i.e., no external, off-chip memory is utilized), and there is no access delay for making an external call to off-board memory. Because, in the exemplary embodiment, the message queue storage is on-chip, the capacity of each queue is not dynamically modifiable. Instead, changes to queue size are carried out in FPGA core or based upon a parameter accessed when the FPGA is initialized.

[0124] The various queues 56, 60, and 62 store request “notifications” rather than the requests themselves. The request notifications, an exemplary format of which is discussed herein below with reference to FIG. 10, include a command and a pointer to additional instructions and/or data stored within external random access memory 70 managed by the buffer control 72 and memory controller 74. Transferring notifications, rather than the buffered requests themselves, between components reduces memory transfers within the data access server system embodying the present invention and streamlines data transfer procedures.

[0125] As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the above described hardware/firmware arrangement depicted in FIG. 3 is exemplary of an architecture for facilitating transfer of large amounts of data, retrieved from a storage device via the internal network 16 (e.g., switch fabric), to a requesting external device connected via an external network. The architecture of the content transfer access node 10 depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3 has only limited processing capabilities for facilitating the data transfers. The result is a relatively inexpensive high-throughput server interface for providing information assets to connected clients over an external network.

[0126] Turning now to FIG. 4, an exemplary context format 200 and related data structures are depicted. The context represents the state of a particular task being performed by the CTE 50. A class state ID 202 provides a pointer to a class state record 203. The class state record 203 includes a memory pool ID 204 that corresponds to a particular buffer pool from which buffer space is allocated to a particular context object. A dispatch target 205 describes a particular type of action to be performed by the particular context object to which the context is assigned. In an embodiment of the invention, the class state also includes an event engine routine handle that identifies a code routine executed in association with the particular class state.

[0127] A set of memory pools are associated with each of a set of capture buffer types. The memory pool ID 204 points to a particular memory pool record 206 associated with one of the set of capture buffer types. A memory pool record includes two fields: a list head field 208 and a list tail field 210. The list head field 208 stores a value corresponding to the location of a first free buffer control block in a linked list of free buffer control blocks representing unused ones of memory blocks allocated to the particular memory pool. The list tail field 210 stores a value corresponding to the location of a last free buffer control block in the linked list of free buffer control blocks. In an illustrative embodiment the list head 208 and list tail 210 comprise a total of 48 bits. The first four bits are reserved, the next twenty bits specify a location in the external RAM 70 where the first free buffer control block is located, the next four bits are zero, and the final twenty bits specify a location in the external RAM 70 where the last free buffer control block for a particular memory pool is located.

[0128] For each network interface engine (e.g., internal and external), the context includes a corresponding capture buffer descriptor 220, 240. Each internal network capture buffer descriptor 220 and external network capture buffer descriptor 240 includes an optional handle (pointer or other reference) referencing a capture buffer having a format of the type depicted by capture buffer control block 222. Non-null handles indicate that the process of capturing a buffer for this context on that network interface engine is in-progress. Each instance of the capture buffer control block 222 includes, by way of example, a copied to buffer address 224 that identifies a location where a buffered data block commences. A logical length 226 identifies the portion of the buffer that has fully captured (or otherwise logically valid) content. By contrast, an allocated length field 228 identifies the total length of the memory allocated to a particular capture buffer. As discussed previously above, the dispatch target field 205 includes one of an extensible set of various target descriptors (see, FIG. 9). As indicated by target queue 230, in addition to pointing to a particular memory pool (field 229), the capture buffer can also point to a particular event queue that receives notifications/requests for a particular class of tasks. As indicated by arrows 232, the event queues 60 in turn include queue entries that specify buffer ID's pointing back to an instance of the capture buffer control block 222. Furthermore, a smart output buffer 234, in an embodiment of the present invention, includes a list of segment descriptor/buffer reference pairs that reference multiple instances of the capture buffer control block 222. In such cases, the segment descriptor specifies an operation/task, and the buffer reference (as depicted by lines 236) specifies a particular instance of the capture buffer control block 222 upon which the operation/task is to be performed.

[0129] Sub-fields within the internal network capture buffer descriptor 220 of the context 200 also track a commit limit and total committed fields. These sub-fields support reporting of partial delivery over the internal network when the out-of-order capability of RDMA transfers is invoked. An exemplary buffer allocation scheme involving partial delivery is described herein below. A buffer use count 238 stores a value indicating a the capture buffer capture buffer is released.

[0130] The external network capture buffer descriptor 240, as mentioned above, stores a reference (optional) to an instance of a capture buffer control block 222. Instances of external network capture buffers correspond to data transfers from the external network 20 into the external RAM 70. An assigned engine queue 250 specifies one of the set of event engines 58 that has been assigned to handle the task associated with the particular context.

[0131] As explained herein above, the CTE 50 dynamically assigns a context/object to a specific execution unit when it makes a dispatch. The dispatch count 260 identifies the number of dispatches associated with a particular context. If there are no currently dispatched events for that context, one of the event engines is picked arbitrarily. When a dispatch is made the CTE increments a count of dispatched events for that context, and records a selected event engine of the event engines 58. As long as that count remains non-zero, all future dispatches for this context/object will be placed on the same queue. At the completion of dispatching each event, the selected event engine will decrement the dispatch count for the context/object. When the count returns to zero, the choice of event queue is once again unlatched and can be dynamically assigned to a later event associated with the context/object.

[0132] In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention all buffers are referenced by twenty-bit buffer IDs that are indexes to buffer control blocks. Four distinct types of buffer control blocks are supported: tables, code routines, allocated buffers and free buffers. The buffer control blocks for tables and code routines are 64 bits each, and 128 bits are required for allocated and free buffers.

[0133] A pre-defined location holds the buffer control block for buffer ID zero. This is pre-defined to be a table that holds the buffer control blocks for all tables and code routines. Buffer ID “one” is reserved for the table holding the buffer control blocks for allocated and free buffers. The first element in the table holding the buffer control blocks will have a buffer ID higher than the buffer ID of the last entry in the table/code-routine table.

[0134] Turning now to FIG. 5, a 64-bit table memory control block format is defined. A table buffer address 300 points to the first entry in a table containing memory control blocks (both 64 and 128-bit). The next 8 bits, field 302 of the memory control block are zeroes (a format marker). A sixteen-bit record size 304 specifies the size of each record. An allocated table size 306 (only 16 of 24 bits are specified) indicates the number of bytes allocated to hold the records; this must be a multiple of the record size.

[0135] An exemplary 64-bit code routine memory control block format is defined in FIG. 6. While their content and usage is different, code routine memory control blocks are identical in format to table control blocks. Code routine memory control blocks include eight 1's as a format marker 312 and all zeroes in the record size 314. Rather than a buffer size, routine size 316 stores a size of a code routine.

[0136] Turning to FIG. 7, the fields are depicted for an allocated buffer control block. Types of buffers include capture (described herein above with reference to FIG. 4), direct and smart output. Each instance of a 128-bit memory control block includes a copied to buffer address 320 that identifies a location where a buffered data block commences. A logical length 322 identifies the portion of the allocated space that is logically usable. For output buffers this would indicate to the network interface engine how much of the buffer should be examined for output specifications (or data). For capture buffers it indicates how large the fully committed portion of the buffer is. An allocated length 324 identifies the total length of the memory allocated to a particular allocated buffer. A format marker 326 indicates whether a particular buffer is a smart output buffer, simple output buffer, or a capture buffer. A memory pool ID 328 indicates which one of a total of 256 potential memory pools with which a particular memory buffer is associated. A designated queue 330 identifies the event queue of the set of event queues 60 with which the memory buffer is associated. An event target 334 comprises a description of a particular event and specifies how to process the buffer's contents. Examples of event formats are described herein below with reference to FIG. 9. A buffer use count field 336 identifies the number of users of a particular buffer. The buffer use count field 336 is incremented when a buffer is allocated or attached. It is decremented each time a claim on it is released. When it is decremented back to zero it will be placed back in its assigned home memory pool by appending it to the tail of that pool's free list.

[0137] A free buffer control block format (one that has not been allocated to an event) is summarized in FIG. 8. The free buffer control block format is similar to the buffer control block depicted in FIG. 7. The identifying difference is that a free buffer has a zero use count, while an allocated buffer has a non-zero use count. The memory address, allocated buffer length and use count fields are aligned, so as to allow references to buffer control blocks without prior knowledge as to whether the specific control is free or in use. Each instance of a 128-bit memory control block includes a copied to buffer address 340 that identifies a location where a buffered data block commences. A next set of 24 bits 342 are reserved (all zero). An allocated length 344 identifies the total length of the memory allocated to a particular free buffer. A memory pool 348 indicates which of a total of 256 potential memory pools with which a particular memory buffer is associated. A next set of twenty-eight bits 350 are undefined. They may have leftover content from when this buffer control block was last allocated. A next free buffer 352 (20 bits) identifies the address of a next free buffer control block (thereby enabling chaining of free buffer control blocks). A buffer use count field 354 identifies the number of users of a particular buffer. In a “free buffer” this value is zero by definition—if there were claims upon the buffer then it would not be a free buffer.

[0138] Turning now to FIG. 9, a set of exemplary event targets (40 bits) are depicted. In general, the first section of an event comprises a format marker field specifying an event type. This is a variable length “Huffman” style encoding, which is well-known technique in the field.

[0139] The first type 400 (Internal Network Target) specifies the packet header information required for an Internal Network Target. This format is used for output requests placed on the internal network event queue. Normally this is only used for output requests from CTDs, but a context state may specify forwarding event notices directly to an XCTD via the internal network.

[0140] The second type 401 (Table Update) is used by a CTD or XCTD to send updates to specific tables. This mechanism is used to bootstrap the CTE. The target specifies which table is being updated (16 bits) and a record offset of the new data (20 bits). Normally both the ‘set’ and ‘clear’ flags are set, causing the entire content of the addressed records to be replaced. By setting only ‘set’ or ‘clear’ the updater may request bit-wise setting or clearing of bits in the target record.

[0141] The third type 402 (Ticker Target) is used by CTDs to request notification after a specific period of time has elapsed. The target specifies the context that is to receive the event and the minimum number of implementation-defined clock ticks that must transpire first.

[0142] The fourth type 403 (External Network Target) is used by the CTD to request output on the external network. The target details the set of external network ports that are acceptable for sending this traffic. In most configurations the CTD finds all ports acceptable, but there could be configurations where different ports lead to different sub-networks.

[0143] The fifth type 404 (Context Target) is used upon buffer capture and for communication between CTDs. It specifies the target context (20 bits), the generation (4 bits) and the capture type (2 bits). The generation is zero for packet capture. For CTD generated events it is any number greater than that of the event currently being processed. This limitation prevents “chain reactions” in faulty software where a single event results in posting two events, which result in posting four events, etc.

[0144] The sixth type 405 (Simulated Input Target) allows a CTD to simulate input with a supplied buffer that is to be treated as though it were raw input received upon the specified channel. For example, the internal network interface engine could be told to simulate reception on a given Node Channel and then be supplied an array of cells. This feature is intended to support debugging and diagnostics.

[0145] As mentioned herein above, the CTE 50 includes a set of message queues 56, 60 and 62 that buffer request/command transmissions between internal components of the CTE 50. Referring to FIG. 10, in an embodiment of the invention, each message is 3 bytes (24 bits). The first four bits 410 identify a specific event completion notification type. The remaining twenty bits 412 comprise a pointer to buffer in the external RAM 70 associated with the event and created by the external RAM interface/buffer control 124 of the CTE 50.

[0146] Turning now to FIG. 11, a set of buffer depictions illustrate another aspect of an embodiment of the present invention enabling buffers to fill in an out-of-order manner while still enabling prompt use of totally delivered portions of the buffer. An important feature of an exemplary embodiment of the invention is the ability to issue large read requests and then receive partial completion notifications as the requested content is delivered. This approach allows the storage network to exercise flexibility in scheduling deliveries.

[0147] The more conventional approach would use more, smaller buffers so as to allow for a steady flow of completion notifications. The conventional approach, however, reduces the flexibility of the scheduler. Depending on the internal network protocols, the requests may have to be dealt with in sequential order. At a minimum, scheduling would be constrained to respect the boundaries between the requests. A single transfer could not be scheduled that crossed the artificial boundaries between sequential requests.

[0148] When files are stored in non-contiguous sectors on storage media maintained on the storage nodes 14, optimum scheduling of the drive head may require reading blocks “out of order”, i.e. in an order that differs from the logical arrangement of the data in the file. Requiring the server to deliver the blocks in order either causes more disk head motion or storage-side buffering (until the complete file is retrieved). Out-of-order delivery facilitates the greatest flexibility for disk data delivery scheduling while eliminating the need for extra disk side buffering. Augmenting out-of-order delivery with early completions allows the use of larger buffers without the increasing pipeline delay that waiting for complete delivery of those larger buffers would entail. As shown in FIG. 11, the ability to support partial completions with out-of-order delivery is achieved by logically dividing each capture buffer into three zones (uncommitted, partially committed and fully committed).

[0149]FIG. 11 depicts a sequence of commits to a data capture buffer. Initially, the buffer is completely empty. The first commit operation adds a data block having a size of “4” and an offset “10.” Thus, since a gap exists at the beginning of the buffer, the fully committed value remains at zero. The value of the highest location in the buffer containing data, “14”, is stored in the total committed field. Total committed data size is set to 4.

[0150] Next, a data block of size “6” is added to the buffer starting at location zero. The total committed is increased to 10, the highest filled location remains “14,” and the fully committed range in the data buffer is increased to “6.” The next commit is size “4” beginning at offset “6.” The commit limit remains unchanged at “14.” At this point the total committed is increased from “10” to “14” and now equals the commit limit (now “14”). Therefore, the fully committed field can be updated to “14. ” A partial completion event can now be posted that specifies the readiness of data up to location 14 to be transmitted from the data capture buffer to a specified destination.

[0151] The remaining two diagrams of FIG. 11 depict the completion of two more commits. The first of the two adds data to the end of the buffer and increases the total committed and the commit limit. The second of the two commits adds data to fill a gap and complete the space of the data capture buffer.

[0152] Turning now to FIG. 12, a set of states and transitions are depicted that summarize the creation of data packets from a set of received cells in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. There are two primary states “Not In Packet” state 700 and “In Packet” state 716 between these two states, cell collectors perform sequences of operations in association with state transitions. From the “Not In Packet” state 700 the normal course of events is to receive a “startCell”. The startCell is processed as follows. At action 702 the packet size is extracted from the start cell header. Next, at action 704 the capture buffer is latched for the type of capture (serial or RDMA) and the packet size promised. If during action 704 no capture buffer is available, an ovverun is tallied at action 706 and the collector returns to the “Not In Packet” state 700.

[0153] Otherwise if a capture buffer is available, then at action 708 the CRC accumulation field is zeroed. Next, at action 710 the packet size collected field is zeroed. Next, at action 712, the base address for the collection (within the capture buf) is obtained. For RDMA packets this is the RDMA offset from the packet base. For serial packets it is after any previous packets already collected for this buffer. Thereafter, at action 714 the cell's payload is stored, with the CRC and length being accumulated. The collector transitions to the “In Packet” state 716.

[0154] From the “Not In Packet” state 700 the following error handling reactions are required. On receipt of an “endCell” the “nMissedEnds” tally is incremented at action 720 and then the Not In Packet state 700 is reentered. On receipt of a “midCell” the “nStrayCells” tally is incremented at action 722 and then the Not In Packet state 700 is reentered.

[0155] From the “In Packet” state 716 the following is done in response receipt of a “midCell”. In response action 714 stores the cell's payload, with the CRC and length being accumulated. The In Packet state 716 is reentered.

[0156] From the “In Packet” state the following operations are executed in the following identified states in response to receiving an “endCell.” The cell's payload is stored per action 724, with the CRC and length being accumulated. Action 726 checks the accumulated CRC. If it is bad, the capture buffer is aborted at action 728, the bad packet counter is incremented at action 730, the context port is unlatched at action 732 and the collector returns to the “Not In Packet” state 700. Otherwise, at action 726 if the CRC is valid, the collected bytes are committed at action 740 and the context port is unlatched at action 732 before the collector returns to the “Not In Packet” state 700.

[0157] From the “Not In Packet” state a “solo cell” may also be received. A solo cell is processed as though it were both a start and end cell. After extracting the packet size at action 760, at action 752 a capture buffer is latched for the packet size promised. If during action 752 no capture buffer is available, an ovverun is tallied at action 754 and the collector returns to the “Not In Packet” state 700. Otherwise, action 756 is entered wherein the CRC accumulation field is zeroed.

[0158] While in the “In Packet” state 716 either a “soloCell”or “startCell” may be received. After aborting processing of a current packet, the solo and start cells are processed as though the collector was in the “Not In Packet State” 700 after the current packet has been aborted. Aborting the current packet accurs by aborting the current capture buffer at action 760 and 762 for start and solo cells respectively. The context port is unlatched at action 764 and 766, and the “nMissedEnds” tally is incremented at actions 768 and 770 for start and solo cells respectively. The remaining steps concern processing the cell as though the cell was received while the collector was in the “Not In Packet State” 700. In particular, a promised packet size is extracted from a start cell or a solo cell at stages 772 and 750, respectively.

[0159] Turning now to FIG. 13, a set of states summarize how Ethernet frames are collected into a packet in accordance with an aspect of an illustrative data server interface. Starting from an “Idle” state 800 the collector responds to the “headerReceived” notice as follows. At action 802 the header contents are read, and used to calculate a hash value. The hash value is used at 802 to find the entry in the hash table where this context should be. If it does not already exist, then a new context is allocated if there are any available in the context buffer pool for that purpose.

[0160] If at action 802 no context existed or could be allocated (“[no context available]”) then the “MaxNewContextDenials” tally is incremented at action 804 and the Ethernet frame is flushed at action 806. The collector then returns to the “Idle” state 800.

[0161] Otherwise if a context existed or can be created, then at action 810 the capture type (serial or RDMA) and packet size is determined from the header. Based upon the acquired information, at action 812 the capture buffer is latched for the port and capture type. If required by the external protocol, the read header information is transferred into the capture buffer at action 814. Next, at action 816 an RDMA transfer is requested of the frame payload to the capture buffer and the “Transferring payload to Capture Buffer” state 820 is entered. The “transferring payload to Capture Buffer” state 820 completes with either a successful transfer or an error. In either case the collector returns to the “Idle” state 800 (albeit via differing paths of sub-states/operations). In the case of a good transfer, at action 822 the collected bytes are committed and at action 824 the context is unlatched. Otherwise, in the case of a bad transfer the capture buffer is aborted at action 826, and the context is unlatched at action 824.

[0162]FIG. 14 summarized states and substates/operations within the life cycle of an exemplary one of the event engines 58. Starting with a Waiting for Event state 1000, the event engine is activated. The Waiting for Event state 1000 occurs continuously in a parallel execution architecture, or by having another event engine block in a co-routine implementation. As a result of activation the event engine will enter the Dispatching Event state 1002. The Dispatching Event state 1002 state will be explored in more detail later herein with reference to FIG. 15. Normally this state is exited with an “ok” status, indicating that an event has been dispatched and the execution of its response can now begin at Instruction state 1004. Alternately, state 1002 can exit with a “queue empty” status and return to the “Waiting for Event” state.

[0163] Execution proceeds from the Instruction state 1004 by fetching the next instruction from internal memory, the opcode is decoded at state 1006 and the implementation of that opcode is invoked during state 1008. The execute opcode state 1008 exits in one of four available methods. The result state transitions are labeled as “ok-done” 1010, “ok-DMA requested” 1012, “successful completion” 1014 and “exception” 1016.

[0164] The “ok-done” transition 1010 that returns to the Fetch Execution state 1004 indicates that the instruction has completed, and the event engine is ready to execute the next instruction. In co-routine implementations there is a possibility that the CTE 50 could shift execution to another unblocked event engine between any instruction.

[0165] The “ok-DMA requested”transition 1012 indicates that the engine has requested a DMA transfer to or from external memory from buffer control. The event engine will be blocked in wait state 1013 until that transfer has completed. At that point the event engine transitions to the fetch instruction state 1004. In a co-routine implementation, the CTE shifts execution to an unblocked event engine.

[0166] The “successful completion” transition 1014 indicates that the event has been fully processed without an exception being raised. This transfers to a Completing Successfully state 1015 which is explained with reference to FIG. 16.

[0167] The “exception” transition 1016 occurs when an instruction raises an exception during the execution of a routine instruction. Causes of exceptions include divide by zero, failure to complete before the dispatch deadline or use of an invalid index. A “Completing with Exception” state 1018 is described herein below with reference to FIG. 17.

[0168] Referring now to FIG. 15, to dispatch an event an event engine first consumes an event from its event queue at state 1100. If the event queue is empty, state 1100 is exited and state 1102 is entered with a “queue empty status”. Otherwise at action 1104 a buffer ID is extracted from the consumed event. At action 1106 a DMA read is requested of a buffer control block indexed by the buffer ID. A wait state 1108 is entered.

[0169] When the DMA read completes, at action 1110 a target context ID is extracted from the buffer control block. This is used as the key to initiating a DMA read of the Context itself at action 1112. The event engine waits at state 1114 for the DMA read to complete.

[0170] When that read is complete at action 1116 the fault status of the retrieved context is checked. If the context has been quarantined due to uncorrected faults control passes to action 1118 and the current buffer is released. The event engine returns to state 1110 and attempts to fetch an event from its input queue.

[0171] Otherwise at action 1120 the event engine gets the current context state from the retrieved context and starts a DMA read of the context state's data at action 1122. The event engine waits at state 1124 for the context data read to finish.

[0172] Upon completion at action 1126 a routine handle is extracted from the context. At action 1128 the event engine ensures that the cache register is set and sets the program counter during action 1130.

[0173] If the code routine is already found within the engine's code cache then during action 1130 the program counter merely needs to be pointed at that location and the “ok” exit can be taken by the event engine during state 1132 to start execution of the routine.

[0174] Otherwise after the program counter is initialized during action 1130, the code routine is DMA read into the code cache. A DMA read is initiated during action 1134 for the code routine's control block. After waiting at state 1136 for the DMA read to complete, at action 1138 the event engine extracts the address and size of the code routine. Next, at action 1140 a DMA read of the code routine is initiated and the event engine waits for its completion during state 1142. Thereafter, the event engine enters the exit state 1132 and execution of the loaded code routine is enabled.

[0175] Referring to FIG. 16, upon successful completion the event engine determines at state 1200 if all events that it must post are currently postable. If not, and none of the target queues have their matching execution units in the “Other Full” state then at state 1202 the event engine sets its own “Other Full” status flag and at state 1204 waits until it is time to recheck the postability of the dispatch results. Thereafter, at state 1206 the event engine clears its “Other Full” flag and returns to state 1200. If at state 1200 waiting could create a deadlock (a target “Other Full” flag is already set) then the event engine must raise the deadlock exception and complete handling of the dispatch as described for the “Completing with Exception” state described below with reference to FIG. 17.

[0176] Otherwise the event engine creates any required log entries at state 1210, DMA write them to external memory at wait state 1212. At state 1214 the event engine posts the events to the other queues, and at state 1216 the event engine DMA writes its context data and state back to external memory. The event engine waits for the DMA write to complete at state 1218. When the DMA write is complete at state 1220 the event engine decrements the context's dispatch count, and then at state 1222 releases the buffer associated with the event.

[0177] Referring to FIG. 17, when an exception has been raised, all pending results of the current dispatch must be discarded. This requires at state 1300 releasing the buffers associated with the events that would have been posted upon a successful completion. When possible, at state 1302 the event engine allocates an exception report buffer. There is a pre-designated report buffer for each type of event. At state 1304 that report buffer is filled and placed at the head of the event engine's input queue. At state 1306, the event will report to the object itself that it faulted, and require it to validate that its internal data is corrupt. If it cannot do so, or faults while attempting to do so, the context will be marked as quarantined. No further events will be dispatched to it. The exception report buffer will typically have a reference to the original buffer, which will require that it be attached. After handling the exception report buffer, at state 1308 the engine will release its claim on the event buffer that caused the exception and at state 1310 a signal is provided that the event was processed (albeit unsuccessfully).

[0178] If the report buffer is full, then the event engine passes from state 1306 to state 1312 wherein it increments a counter that tallies lost exceptions. Next, at state 1314, the event engine releases its claim upon the exception report buffer. Lastly the event's context dispatch count must be decremented, just as it would have been with a successful completion.

[0179]FIG. 18 illustrates the life cycle of a buffer control block. It starts in the “Free” state 1400. After buffer control 72 removes the buffer control block from its memory pool's free list, it is assigned to perform a specific capture type for a specific context. This involves setting the initial use count to 1 at state 1402, initializing the logical length to zero at state 1404, and setting the event target at state 1406. The Event Target encodes the target context, the selected target queue, the generation and the capture type (for generation zero events). Target context and queue selection have been described previously herein. The generation field is set to zero when the buffer is being allocated for capture. When events are sent by CTDs to other CTDs the generation field must be set to a value higher than that of the event which is currently being processed. The four types of capture are internal network serial mode, internal network RDMA mode, external network serial mode and external network RDMA mode. A given context may have at most one active capture in-progress for each capture type.

[0180] For RDMA captures two additional fields (Total Committed and CommitLimit) must be initialized to zero at states 1408 and 1410. These fields are found in the context data, rather than buffer control block to avoid wasting their space on buffers that are not supporting RDMA capture. The buffer is now in the Allocated state 1412. From the allocated state 1412 the buffer may be further attached, which causes the use count to be incremented at state 1414. The buffer returns to the Allocated state 1412.

[0181] Also from the allocated state 1412 the buffer may be committed at state 1416 or 1418. The act of committing a portion of a capture buffer indicates two things. First it indicates that the packet collector has received a portion being committed and the portion has been validated by a capture specific method, most typically a CRC32. Second, by committing a portion of the capture buffer, the packet collector yields its permission to further modify those bytes. Committed bytes are ready for processing by an event engine.

[0182] For serial captures the Logical Length is simply incremented by the number of newly committed bytes at state 1416. For RDMA (out-of-order) captures the Commit Limit, Total Committed and Logical Length fields must be updated as follows: if the base of the newly committed data (Commit.base) matches the current CommitLimit, then CommitLimit is incremented by the newly committed size (Commit.size) at state 1418, TotalCommitted is incremented by the newly committed size (Commit.size) at state 1420, if the LogicalLength (which is the portion fully committed) is equal to the newly committed base (Commit.base) then the Logical Length is incremented by the newly committed size (Commit.size) at state 1422, and lastly if all bytes below the CommitLimit have been committed (TotalCommitted is equal to CommitLimit) then the LogicalLength can be set to the TotalCommitted at state 1424. The rationale for out-of-order commits was discussed more fully with reference to FIG. 11.

[0183] After byte counter maintenance steps are completed the number of users is incremented, at state 1426 and the event is posted to the target queue at state 1428. If the target queue is full, then at state 1430 the execution unit's status is marked as “Other Full” before the execution unit suspends itself at state 1432. The “Other Full” status will prevent other execution units from suspending while trying to post output requests to this execution unit's queue. This prevents the well-known “deadly embrace” deadlock, where two execution units are each waiting for the other to empty its input queue, but neither can because they are waiting for the other to act first. The execution unit will be activated from this “waiting to post” state 1432 after any execution unit has completed processing an event. The flag is cleared at state 1434 and the post re-attempted at state 1428.

[0184] As each claim on the buffer is released, at state 1440 the number of users is decremented. Alternatively when the last claim is released at state 1442 the buffer is restored to the tail of its home memory pool and returns to the “free” state 1400.

[0185] Turning now to FIG. 19, a set of steps are depicted that summarize an exemplary sequence of events/operations for transmitting requested data from a data server to an external client node. It is noted that in general, the disclosed architecture of the CTE 50 enables applications, through the use of status/control/notification messages, to control the transfer of data from a data storage node to a requesting client for Internet, NAS, SAN and similar protocols without incurring overhead associated with placing transferred data payloads in the memory space of application software.

[0186] In an embodiment of the present invention applications are developed as a set of object classes. The resulting objects are invoked either as CTDs 59 on the CTE 50 itself or as XCTDs 86 on a companion CTEX 88 running on the supplemental processor node 22 a. The CTE 50 captures incoming packets and dispatches corresponding events to a context object to which a particular client request is assigned. By way of example, the context objects access shared tables, generate output requests, generate messages to other objects and modify their own data. The CTEX 88 performs the same function for extended content transfer daemons (XCTDs) on the supplemental processor node 22 a.

[0187] With reference now to FIG. 19, an exemplary connection and corresponding client request includes the following operations/steps. Initially at step 1500 an incoming request from the external network is identified as being a new connection. In response, at step 1502 a new context (context object) is assigned and an entry is created in the external network interface's packet identifying hash tables associating the new connection with the new context.

[0188] Thereafter, at step 1504 the context object completes initial validating negotiations and establishment of the connection with a requesting client. An example of such negotiations is completing the TCP three-part handshake. Due to the wide variety and/or potential complexity of this step, finishing establishment of the connection, particularly validation of the user and any supplied credentials (such as user password) will typically be passed by an event engine within the CTE 50 to an XCTD running on the CTEX 88.

[0189] After the CTEX 88 validates the session, at step 1506 the CTEX 88 reassigns the external network packet identifying the connection/context hash table entry to a new context object that handles the in-session protocol for responding to the client request(s). The original context object is returned to the available pool of context objects for processing/validating unknown connections.

[0190] Next, at step 1508 the new context object executing on the CTE 50 and associated with an in-session protocol issues/passes requests over the internal network to obtain content requested via the validated client connection. This is performed, by way of example, on a read-ahead basis that is primarily regulated by available buffering rather than as a direct response to a sequence of incoming requests. The requested data is transferred from one or more of the storage nodes 14 via the internal network 16 directly to a content transfer access node 10, thereby bypassing the supplemental processor nodes 22. The content transfer engines generally keep supervisory applications executing upon the supplemental processors aware of the status of data transfers and connections. However, the status knowledge is acquired through status notifications passed to the supplemental processor rather than direct observation of the transferred data content by the supervisory applications executing on the supplemental processor.

[0191] During step 1510 the in-session context object issues protocol-specific output messages (requests/responses) to the connected external client as material is available and subject to any pacing specifications. The potential applicable data transfer protocols include both client-based pacing (in response to acks) and time-driven pacing (aiming at a specific rate until nacked). Generally there will be fewer internal network fetches (transferring data directly from a data storage node to a content transfer engine residing on the content transfer access node) than external network transmits. For example, it would be common to fetch a 48 KByte HTML file in a single read over the internal network, but it would take at least 32 separate TCP segments to deliver it. For extremely large deliveries, such as streaming media, pacing drives transmission from the buffer space assigned in the CTE 50 for the connection while reads are issued whenever the buffer drops below a configured threshold.

[0192] It is noted that execution of steps 1508 and 1510 can overlap. As illustrated in the examples discussed herein above, this is especially true in cases where relatively large files are transferred. In such instances, the transfer of data over an external interface to a requesting client commences prior to completing transfer of the file from a storage node to a buffer in the CTE 50.

[0193] It is further noted that during both steps 1508 and 1510 the new in-session context object on the CTE 50 reports aggregate progress and exception conditions (if present) to a corresponding XCTD executing on the CTEX 88 associated with an application executing upon the supplemental processor node 22 a. The application, executing upon the supplemental processor 22 a and potentially supervising client data requests and corresponding responses, does not directly access the transferred data. Instead, the application executing upon the supplemental processor 22 a observes, via notifications from the CTE 50, the progress of data transfers. Based upon the notifications, the application issues control instructions via the XCTD to the CTE 50 performing the actual data transfers.

[0194] After completing a response to a file request or alternatively when a session is completed, during step 1512 a hash entry for the associated CTD in the CTE 50 is removed from the hash table, the CTD notifies a corresponding XCTD of the completion, and the CTD returns to the available pool of CTDs for its object type.

[0195] Illustrative embodiments of the present invention and certain variations thereof have been provided in the Figures and accompanying written description. The present invention is not intended to be limited to these embodiments. Rather the present invention is intended to cover the disclosed embodiments as well as others falling within the scope and spirit of the invention to the fullest extent permitted in view of this disclosure and the inventions defined by the claims appended herein below. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A network server system for efficiently processing requests for information assets stored upon a set of storage drives, wherein the requests are received via a communicatively coupled network link, the server system comprising: an internal network communicatively coupling nodes within the network data server system; a supplemental processor node communicatively coupled to the internal network and comprising a general purpose processor and operating system, and wherein the supplemental processor supports executing application programs; a data storage node communicatively coupled to the internal network, the data storage node comprising storage media and conversion circuitry for packaging retrieved data from the storage media to a format for transmission over the internal network; and an external network access node supporting network connections between the network server system and client nodes via an external network, the external network interface comprising: an external network interface comprising an external network interface engine for executing data transfers between the external network access node and the external network, an internal network interface comprising an internal network interface engine for executing data transfers between the external network access node and the internal network, and one or more event engines for executing information asset transfers between the data storage device and the external network in accordance with contexts, maintained by the external network access node, describing a present state of executing information asset transfers performed by the one or more event engines.
 2. A method for processing requests for information assets stored upon a set of data storage drives by a network server system, wherein the requests are received via a communicatively coupled external network link, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, by an external network access node via the external network link, a request for an information asset; creating, by the external network access node, a context for the request wherein the context includes a buffer identification and a processing engine on the external network access node assigned to execute the request; submitting, by the external network access node, a request for data from a storage node connected to the external network access node by an internal network; and receiving, by the external network access node from the storage node, data corresponding to the request for data from the storage node, and storing the received data within memory on the external network access node corresponding to the buffer identification, wherein data transferred from the storage node to the receiving external network node bypasses application memory space on a general processor node; and transmitting, by the external network access node, the data stored within memory corresponding to the buffer identification, over the external network link.
 3. A network server system for efficiently processing requests for information assets stored upon a set of storage drives, wherein the requests are received via a communicatively coupled network link, the server system comprising: a supplemental processor node; a network interface node comprising: a network interface communicatively coupled to the network link and configured to receive requests from clients via the network link; delegation logic facilitating: associating a request type with at least a portion of a request, identifying a handler from a set of processing elements for executing at least the portion of the request based upon the request type, and creating a data structure linking at least the portion of the new request to the identified handler processor; and a data path from the set of storage drives to the network interface, the data path facilitating data transfers between the set of storage drives and the external data access node containing the set of processing elements that bypass the supplemental processor node. 